Basket Construction

Abstract

A basket for fruit and produce having corrugated board bottom and folded double thickness side and end walls in various sizes, such as peck and half-bushel, and having a plastic handle. The handle is formed of a flattened tubular plastic member such as extruded tubular polyethylene. The flattened handle preferably is generally oval in cross section and preferably has concave upper and lower walls and rounded edges in cross-section providing a double-thickness handle stiff enough to maintain its arched shape when stapled to the corrugated board basket side walls. The lower ends of the tubular plastic handle are each stapled by one or two staples to the outer layer only of the corrugated board side walls. The staples are engaged only with the outer layer of the flattened tubular handle member. An opening is formed at the outer corner between each basket side wall and the bottom wall midway between the ends for insertion of the anvil of a stapling tool exteriorly of the basket to telescope the anvil into an end of the tubular handle so that no clinched staple ends project to the interior of the basket.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. field of the Invention

The invention relates to baskets used for harvesting, handling, storing, shipping and displaying fruit and food products, such as tomatoes, peaches, etc. More particularly, the invention relates to a corrugated board basket having a plastic handle.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Traditionally, baskets in various sizes for handling food products have been formed of woven shaved wood strips and arched wooden handles are stapled to the baskets. Baskets also have been formed from folded corrugated board having a single thickness bottom wall and double thickness interlocked side and end walls. The ends of a wooden handle similar to those used with woven wood baskets, are inserted through openings at the tops of the side walls midway thereof. The ends are stapled to the double thickness side walls near the inner corners between the lower side and bottom walls of the basket. The clinched staple ends are exposed at the inner surfaces of the basket.

The wooden handles for both wooden and corrugated board baskets always have been objectionable since they frequently split resulting in splinters that can injure the hands of anyone lifting or carrying the baskets. Such wooden handles also are subject to cross-fracture when struck during handling or when suddenly lifting a heavy basket load. Attempts have been made to eliminate these undesirable splintering and fracturing difficulties by using a single-thickness plastic material strip having the approximate width and thickness of wooden handles.

Such plastic strip handles, however, also involve difficulties. When the plastic material is thick and stiff enough to maintain its normal arched shape it is quite difficult to staple the ends thereof to the basket side walls. If the plastic handle strip is thin enough and soft enough to permit easy stapling, then the handle is too limp, flimsy or flexible, and it is difficult to control the basket load.

The flexibility difficulty is particularly troublesome, for example, when using baskets for harvesting food products, such as tomatoes. Four baskets usually are carried by the worker, in field harvesting, two in each hand. The handles of two baskets are grasped between the third and fourth fingers of each hand. Splintering wooden handles have injured the workers' hands under such conditions. Also, soft flexible plastic handles have caused loaded baskets to wobble and spill.

Furthermore, stapling the handles, both wooden and plastic, to baskets, either wooden or corrugated board, heretofore has involved driving and clinching the staples, one or two in number, entirely through the basket side walls and entirely through the end portions of the handles. The clinched ends of the staples are exposed along the inner surfaces of the basket. These clinched staple ends can damage fruit or vegetables or other food products placed, stored or carried in the baskets.

This condition becomes more aggravated when heavy or stiff staples are used that can be driven through thick plastic strip material which has sufficient stiffness to maintain the normal arched handle shape and to avoid load shifting from basket wobble.

Although single-thickness plastic strip basket handles have eliminated the splintering and fracturing difficulties characteristic of wooden handles, the edges of stiff single-thickness plastic strip material normally are sharper than desirable for comfort in carrying several baskets at once by several fingers of one hand, particularly when the load in the basket may be heavy and shifting.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Objectives of the invention include providing a new basket handle construction which eliminates the splintering and fracturing difficulties heretofore encountered with food product baskets having wooden handles; providing a new basket handle construction which eliminates the difficulties heretofore encountered with single thickness strip plastic handles thick and stiff enough to maintain arched handle shape or thin and soft enough to permit easy stapling; providing a new basket handle construction which eliminates the discomfort occasioned by sharp edges of stiff single-thickness plastic handles; providing a new handle construction which eliminates clinched staple ends at the inside surfaces of basket side walls where fruit or produce contained in the baskets can be damaged by the staple ends; providing a new plastic handle construction for produce baskets formed of flattened tubular plastic material, preferably generally oval in cross-section, and having concave upper and lower walls and rounded edges in cross-section; providing a new produce basket flattened tubular plastic handle construction having stiffness sufficient to maintain an arched handle shape when secured to basket side walls; providing a new basket construction in which the outer layer only of the lower end of a flattened tubular plastic handle member is stapled to the outer layer only of a double-thickness corrugated board basket side wall to eliminate the presence of clinched staple ends at the inner surfaces of the basket side walls; providing a new basket construction which assists in the ready assembly of a flattened tubular plastic handle member with double-thickness corrugated board basket side walls; providing a new basket construction in which stapling tools may be used exteriorly of the basket walls to staple the basket handle and side walls together; providing a new produce basket construction which is inexpensive to manufacture and assemble, which eliminates the enumerated difficulties heretofore encountered, which achieves the indicated objectives simply, effectively and inexpensively, and which solves problems that long have existed in the produce and food products basket field.

These objectives and advantages are obtained by the basket construction, the general nature of which may be stated as including a corrugated board basket having double-thickness side walls, and a plastic handle for the basket, the handle comprising a generally flattened tubular member molded or extruded to tubular shape preferably from low-density natural polyethylene, low-density vinyl, or low-density EVA plastic material; the flattened tubular member being generally oval with preferably concave upper and lower walls and rounded edges in cross section, the flattened tubular concaved oval shape providing strength and stiffness to maintain an arched and laterally stiff handle when the handle is assembled with the basket; the lower ends of the tubular handle member extending through openings formed at the top edges of the basket side walls intermediate the basket ends and between the inner and outer layers or panels of the double-thickness side walls; there being openings formed in the basket corners between the bottom wall and side walls aligned with and spaced below said top edge openings, providing access to the open ends of the handle member which extends between the inner and outer side wall panels; said bottom corner openings permitting access exteriorly of the basket of a stapling tool to the open tubular handle ends for stapling the handle and side walls together; and staple means engaging the outer layers only of the side walls and tubular handle member ends, whereby the clinched ends of the staple means are located within the tubular handle walls.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the new basket construction;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a corrugated board blank which may be folded to form the bottom, side and end walls of a basket;

FIG. 3 is a side view of the plastic handle component of the basket shown in FIG. 1, on the same scale as FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a view similar to a portion of FIG. 1 showing initial operations in assembling a plastic handle component with a folded corrugated board basket;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to a portion of FIG. 4 illustrating a hand stapling tool being inserted into one lower end of a tubular plastic handle for stapling the handle to a basket;

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 5 but showing the stapling tool in position for driving a staple through the outer layers only of a corrugated board basket side wall and a lower end of a tubular plastic handle;

FIG. 7 is a greatly enlarged sectional view taken on the line 7--7, FIG. 1;

FIG. 8 is a similar enlarged sectional view taken on the line 8--8, FIG. 1;

FIG. 9 is a similar enlarged sectional view taken on the line 9--9, FIG. 6;

FIG. 10 is a fragmentary view, with parts broken away, looking in the direction of the arrows 10--10, FIG. 9; and

FIG. 11 is a fragmentary sectional view looking in the direction of the arrows 11--11, FIG. 9.

Similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

A typical corrugated board basket is shown generally at 1. The basket walls may be formed from the corrugated board blank indicated generally at 2 in FIG. 2 having slits 3, side wall fold lines 4 and 5, end wall fold lines 6, end flap fold lines 7, side flap fold lines 8, and enlarged slots 9. The fold lines, slits and slots form bottom wall panel 10, outer side wall panels 11, inner side wall panels 12, end wall panels 13, end wall flaps 14 and side wall flaps 15. The outer edges of panels 12 are formed with ears 16 adapted to be inserted in slots 17 when the blank 2 is folded to form the basket shown in FIG. 1.

An opening 18 is formed along each fold line 5 between the side panels 11 and 12 intermediate the ends of the basket, and the ends of handle shown generally at 19 are inserted through these openings when assembling the handle to basket 1. The blank 2 and the formed or folded corrugated board basket 1 as thus far described comprise a usual folded corrugated board basket construction. Heretofore either a wooden or a single-thickness plastic handle has been assembled with such basket 1 and stapled entirely through the basket side walls and the lower ends of the handle.

The basket blank 2 is modified in accordance with the invention to provide openings 20 along the fold lines 4 aligned with and spaced below the openings 18 when the basket is in folded condition as shown in FIG. 1.

The improved plastic handle member 19 is shown generally as a straight length of tubular plastic material in FIG. 3, and is shown quite enlarged in FIGS. 7 to 11. The handle 19 comprises a flattened tubular member formed of plastic material and has a generally oval cross section as indicated in FIGS. 8 and 11 with normally somewhat concaved side walls 21 and curved edges 22. Handle 19 preferably is made of a low-density natural polythylene plastic material, or low-density vinyl plastic material, or low-density EVA plastic material and may be either molded or extruded to the tubular flattened concaved shape shown.

Normally plastic handle member 19 extends with a straight axis as shown in FIG. 3, and the concaved oval shape provides some stiffness, particularly laterally, along the long oval cross-sectional axis so that when the handle 19 is assembled as shown in FIG. 1, it will maintain the arch shape and is extremely stiff laterally against bending toward either basket end wall.

Handle member 19 is illustrated in FIG. 4 in dot-dash lines held in a hand and bent for assembly with basket 1. The slot 18, as best shown in FIGS. 4 and 7, formed along the fold line 5, extends farther at 18a from the fold line 5 along the inner side panel 12 than along the outer side panel 11. This location of slot 18 provides a wall portion 11a adjacent the slot 18 opposite the slot portion 18a (FIG. 7) which may be engaged by one end of the handle member 19 in inserting such end through the slot 18 and down the side wall between the outer and inner panels 11 and 12. The handle 19 after insertion of its end 19a between side panels 11 and 12 is illustrated in full lines in FIG. 4 with the inserted portion shown in dotted lines. After insertion of said one handle end 19a as shown in FIG. 4, the other handle end 19b may be inserted through the other slot 18 and between the outer and inner panels 11 and 12 of the other basket side wall to assume the positions shown in FIGS. 1, 5 and 6.

Following the insertion assembly of handle 19 to the position shown in FIGS. 5, 6, 9 and 10, a stapling tool may be used to staple handle 19 to basket 1. A typical stapling tool 23 may be used for stapling. The tool anvil 24 is inserted as illustrated in FIGS. 5, 6, 9 and 10 through a slot 20 and telescopes into the open lower end 19a or 19b of the handle member 19. One or more staples may be driven, two being shown at 25 in FIGS. 1 and 7. The tool 23 is moved to the desired positions for driving two staples.

The staples 25 are driven through and secure together the outer side wall panel 11 and the outer flattened tubular wall layer 19c of an end 19a or 19b of the handle member 19, as best shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. The clinched ends 26 of the staples 25 are located within the tubular ends 19a and 19b of the handle member 19 and do not project through the inner basket side wall panels 12. Thus, there are no metal staple ends present at the inner surface of basket 1 which if present could damage fruit, vegetables, or other produce placed, stored or carried in basket 1.

Although a hand stapling tool 23 is illustrated, machine staplers also may be used. Ordinarily the basket blanks 2 are shipped in the flat to greenhouses, produce growers, etc. and are folded to basket shape and handles stapled thereto by produce harvesting personnel prior to their going into the fields to harvest the food products which are gathered in baskets. When a wooden slat handle is assembled with a basket, it must be bent to arch shape for assembly. Splintering or splitting of the wooden handles sometimes occurs at this time which can injure the worker. This prior difficulty is eliminated by the new construction.

Heretofore, the stapling operations during basket assembly by a worker at a greenhouse or in the fields normally has involved use of stapling machines having anvils that are inserted into the formed basket along the inside surfaces of the inner side wall panels. This is a more difficult assembly operation than applying a stapling tool, whether of hand or machine type, exteriorly of the basket to staple handles to baskets.

An important aspect of the invention is the flattened shape of the tubular plastic handle member 19 to form a generally oval cross section with concave side walls 21 and rounded corners 22. The flattened shape provides lateral stiffness or rigidity against bending endwise of the basket, and at the same time provides combined flexibility and stiffness sufficient to maintain the arch handle form as shown in FIG. 1 The concave wall portions when the handle is bent to arch shape also prevents kinking of the plastic material which otherwise could result in undesirable distortion of the handle.

The manufacture of the handle member 19 from low-density plastic materials such as those described permits relatively thin tubular plastic walls to be used which do not offer undesirable resistance to stapling. Furthermore, the rounded edges 22 eliminate the sharper edges of prior wooden or single-thickness plastic strip handles which can cut into a worker's hands between fingers when several loaded baskets are held in one hand with the handles gripped between two fingers.

In addition, the absence of any portions of any staples at the inside surfaces of the basket side walls avoides damage to fruit, or other produce contained within the basket, resulting from the produce rubbing against or being abraded by metal staple members.

The relocation of the openings 18 along the fold lines 5 provides wall portions 11a which assist in assembling the handles to the basket. Furthermore, the openings 20 at the bottom corners of the basket permit insertion of the stapling tool anvil into the open ends of the tubular handle member.

The basket construction illustrated and described may have any usual size, such as peck and half-bushel sizes, but the baskets may be larger or smaller and still incorporate the new concepts of the invention.

Moreover, although maximum benefits and advantages of the invention are obtained when the improved tubular oval handle construction is stapled at its ends to the outside panel only of corrugated board basket side walls, the oval tubular plastic handle may have the outside layer of the ends of the handle member stapled or otherwise secured to woven wood strip baskets to eliminate the splintering and projecting staple difficulties present with wooden baskets having wooden handles.

Accordingly, the improved basket construction eliminates wooden handles and the splintering, breaking or splitting thereof, and also eliminates sharp handle edges heretofore present in wooden and single-thickness plastic strip basket handles; provides an improved tubular plastic handle construction which may be made of plastic soft enough to permit easy stapling, but which at the same time, because of flattened oval cross-sectional shape, has stiffness to maintain an assembled arch shape enabling load control when holding several loaded baskets in one hand; provides a construction which eliminates metal staple portions at inner basket surfaces; provides a construction which may be readily assembled and which is inexpensive to manufacture; and provides a construction which achieves the objectives and solves problems that have long existed in the art.

In the foregoing description, certain terms have been used for brevity, clearness and understanding, but no unnecessary limitations are to be implied therefrom beyond the requirements of the prior art because such terms are used for descriptive purposes and are intended to be broadly construed.

Moreover, the description and illustration of the invention is by way of example and the scope of the invention is not limited to the exact details shown or described since the features of the invention may be applied to differently sized and differently constructed baskets.

Having now described the features, discoveries and principles of the invention, the manner in which the improved baskets are made, the characteristics of the new construction, and the advantageous, new and useful results obtained; the new and useful structures, devices, elements, arrangements, parts, combinations and subcombinations are set forth in the appended claims.

Claims

I claim:

1. Basket construction including side, end and bottom walls forming a basket container, and a plastic handle member for the container; the handle member comprising a generally flattened tubular member formed of plastic material and having a generally oval cross section with concave inner and outer walls and rounded edges, and staple means connecting the lower ends of the handle member to the container side walls; and the staple means engaging the side walls outside the handle and engaging the outer wall only of the handle member, whereby the clinched ends of the staple means are located within the tubular handle member walls.

2. Basket construction as defined in claim 1 in which the container is formed of corrugated board having double-thickness side walls, in which the double-thickness side walls comprise inner and outer panels, in which the ends of the handle member extend between the inner and outer side wall panels, and in which the staple means engage the outer side wall panel and the outer handle wall only.

3. Basket construction as defined in claim 2 in which the plastic material is selected from the class consisting of low-density natural polyethylene, vinyl, and EVA plastic material.

4. Basket construction as defined in claim 2 in which openings are formed along the fold lines at the top edges of the basket side walls between the inner and outer panels intermediate the basket ends, and in which the lower ends of the tubular handle member extend through said openings and between the inner and outer side wall panels.

5. Basket construction as defined in claim 4 in which openings are formed in the basket corners along the fold lines between the bottom wall and side walls aligned with and spaced below said top edge openings, and in which said corner openings provide access to the lower ends of the handle member for staple tool insertion into the lower tubular member ends for stapling the handle member to the outer side wall panels.

6. Basket construction as defined in claim 4 in which the openings at the top edges of the side walls have deflecting wall portions in the outer panels opposite the openings to assist insertion of handle member ends into and through the openings and between the side wall panels.

7. Basket construction including a corrugated board basket having side, end and bottom walls, and a plastic handle member for the basket; the handle member comprising a generally flattened tubular member formed of plastic material and having inner and outer walls with rounded edges in cross section; staple means connecting the lower ends of the handle member to the basket side walls; and the staple means engaging the side walls outside the handle and engaging the outer wall only of the handle member, whereby the clinched ends of the staple means are located within the tubular handle end walls.

8. Basket construction including a corrugated board basket having side, end and bottom walls, and a plastic handle member for the basket; the handle member comprising a generally flattened tubular member formed of plastic material and having concave inner and outer walls with rounded edges in cross section; staple means connecting the lower ends of the handle member to the basket side walls; and the staple means engaging the side walls outside the handle and engaging the outer wall only of the handle member, whereby the clinched ends of the staple means are located within the tubular handle end walls.

9. Basket construction including a corrugated board basket having end and bottom walls and double thickness side walls, and a plastic handle member for the basket; the handle member comprising a generally flattened tubular member formed of plastic material and having inner and outer walls with rounded edges in cross section; the double thickness side walls comprising inner and outer panels; the ends of the handle member extending between the inner and outer side wall panels; and staple means connecting the outer side wall panels and the lower ends of the outer handle wall, whereby the clinched ends of the staple means are located within the tubular handle end walls.